Trust the Lebanese to dwell on ancient events: Who is this Lara Fabian anyway?
Posted by: adonis49 on: January 30, 2012
Trust the Lebanese to dwell on ancient events: Who is this Lara Fabian anyway?
In the last three weeks, Lebanon was confronted with two groups related to the programmed event of Lara Fabian (42 year-old) singing at the Casino du Liban in mid February (on the occasion of Valentine Day). One group, Campaign to Boycott Israeli Supporters is intent on blocking “artists” who performed in Israel and blatently expressing their “love to Israel” to performing in Lebanon, and another group claiming that “prohibiting” these artists to performing in Lebanon will hurt the “cultural” image of Lebanon and handicap tourism activities,… I previously published on that flap and the letter of the opposing movement to Lara in https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/what-eucalyptus-trees-have-to-do-with-zionist-israel-celebrations-and-lebanon-why-eucalyptus-is-spreading-strong-antagonistic-emotions/
This post is intended on displaying the position of the “art for art sake” group. The Lebanese daily Al Nahar wrote: “Activists slammed over the weekend anti-Israeli campaigners who had rallied against a planned, but now canceled, visit by singer Lara Fabian to Lebanon.
The Campaign to Boycott Israeli Supporters in Lebanon cited an online video showing Fabian singing in a 2008 concert on the anniversary of the creation of Israel. Fabian sang in Hebrew and then later before getting off the stage said: “I love you Israel.”
The establishment of Israel in 1948, termed the Nakba (catastrophe) by Palestinians and many in the Arab region, saw the forceful expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. Lebanon and Israel are technically in a state of war and last fought each other in a 34-day conflict in 2006. (Lara Fabian had expressed her love to Israel as Gaza was being burned by phosphorous bombs and babies reduced to living torches…)
The managing company of Lara’s concerts dispatched a letter to the Casino stating: “For security reasons, Lara Fabian will not satisfy her contract…We cannot handle the physical threats we received…” Bilal Sh3ib, managing director of concerts in the Casino said: “There is no basis for Fabian to cancel out. Singer Fabian didn’t receive any threats, physical or otherwise…” and he went on to state the “love of Lebanese” for culture, art, and bla, bla, bla…
The Association of Reporters Against Violence released a statement on Saturday:
“These suspicious campaigns do not affect Israel but reflect on Lebanon’s image and reputation. On Thursday, Belgian-Italian singer Fabian canceled her tour to Lebanon scheduled for Feb. 14 and Feb. 15 at Casino du Liban after anti-Israeli campaigners rallied against her visit.
“The Lebanese authorities are responsible for the cancellation and the distortion of Lebanon’s image. The government should have provided the necessary security measures to ensure the safety of performers. But the government failed, as usual, to the campaigners and organizations that have nothing to do with Lebanon, its culture and role.
“One of the campaigner’s goals is to isolate Lebanon from the world and transform it to (Iran Islamic jurisprudence) image which Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani of Iran’s elite Al-Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards Corp seeks to create in (south Lebanon).”
On Friday, local media quoted Suleimani as saying that south Lebanon was under the control of Iran and its ideas. His remarks, carried by Iran’s official news agency IRNA Friday, were mistranslated by Arabic media and interpreted by March 14 politicians to mean that south Lebanon was under Iran’s influence.
In an apparent reference to Hezbollah, the pro-Israel Lebanese activists also slammed the tripartite formula of “army, people, the resistance,” which they claim is for the purpose of transforming the system in Beirut to a Tehran-style regime.
There have been other incidents where artists have called off their visits to Lebanon over links to or showing sympathy with the Jewish state. For example, in 2009, French stand-up comedian Gad Elmaleh canceled his three-day tour to Lebanon after activists, saying Elmaleh was pro-Israeli and served in the Israeli army, rallied against his visit.
On her Facebook official page, the singer wrote: “I will not sing under menace…I don’t work well with hate…I appreciate tolerance, generosity, and truth…Those who didn’t comprehend my position and refuse my visit to your beautiful country where I had previously sang, they don’t have to be worried…”
“Example of censuring are multiplying: Prohibiting extracts of Anne Frank Journal in school texts, erasing the name of Steven Spielberg in Tintin billboards…”
The latest survey shows that 300,000 families live under the poverty line (less than $100 a month), and you have the kids of these “rich families” receiving weekly stipends in the hundreds of dollars in order to have fun (concert tickets costing over $100) and not giving a hoot to the precarious condition of Lebanon…We could not afford the fuel for our central heating system this winter, and my old parents are keeping warm in beds…
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jan-21/160670-activists-slam-campaigns-against-lara-fabian.ashx#ixzz1kCociKUX (The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Adonis Diaries 
June 9, 2013 at 10:20 am
Good day! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after reading through some of the post I realized it’s new to me.
Anyways, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back often!